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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24806494">The Last Goodbye</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosygv/pseuds/Rosygv'>Rosygv</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Birthday, Denial of Feelings, Family Feels, Future Fic, Gen, Goodbyes, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Jealousy, Morgan Hope Stark, Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan and Cassie are friends, Morgan hates Peter, Morgan secretly loves Peter, Not A Fix-It, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Canon, Stark family feels, Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Time Travel, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:26:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,187</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24806494</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosygv/pseuds/Rosygv</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark died in peace with the knowledge he saved the world. A peace his daughter didn't get to share. Thirteen years later, Morgan Stark's eighteenth birthday presents her the opportunity of a lifetime, and a reality check with every suppressed feeling she's hidden with time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Rhodey" Rhodes &amp; Tony Stark, Morgan Stark &amp; Cassie Lang, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) &amp; Tony Stark, Pepper Potts &amp; Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker &amp; Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark &amp; Avengers Team</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day before my sixth birthday, my mother approached me and asked me what I wanted for a present; she said I could choose any toy, video game, or age-appropriate electronic artifact that I desired, no matter how crazy it sounded, or whatever the price was. I remember looking at her tired yet familiar face, with her blue eyes lacking the gleam they had the year before, but I know she made, and still makes an effort to appear just a bit excited. I, as the airhead I was at age six, didn’t stop to think about my answer, but instead blurted out my deepest wish up until today. I wanted my dad. Suddenly my bedroom’s atmosphere turned cold, and my mom started to tear up and although I told her about a dog and she got me one, I knew I had fucked up then and there, but still, twelve years have passed since that very moment, and not a day of my life goes by without thinking about him.</p><p>His dark and wrinkled eyes. His salt and pepper short hair. His smile whenever I did something naughty. The pride emanated off him whenever I showed any interest in technology. It’s been thirteen years since I last saw my dad without knowing it’d be the last time he’d hold me, and tell me he loves me with all his heart. Thirteen years have passed, and the unsaid goodbyes have stayed deeply buried in my chest, never to come out to reality.</p><p>The morning of my 18th birthday is so bright not even my automatic blinds block out the light in its entirety, and so I rise up from my bed and rest my back against the bed’s headboard, waiting for my body to respond. The compound grounds are still and quiet, though I’m sure the staff is up and running already.</p><p>“FRIDAY, could you please open the blinds and turn the shower on?”</p><p>“Yes of course Miss Morgan, and happy birthday,” the ever present A.I. responds.</p><p>When the water is hot enough, I spend an entire hour locked up in the bathroom, reminding myself of whoever might be coming to the compound today to celebrate my birthday. As the daughter of the savior of Earth and America’s top industrial CEO, mom decided for me to be homeschooled in order to avoid harassment and mass media, and ever since I built my first iron blaster at age 8, my home schooling turned to private tutoring with the best minds across the world. FRIDAY lists off a bunch of useless news as per usual while I comb my short chocolate brown hair - Dad last saw me with short hair, so I stayed with short hair- and get dressed in one of dad’s old AC/DC tees and comfortable pants, planning to use all of today to work on some solar energy blueprints mom asked me to check and correct for SI.</p><p>Fresh-faced and well rested, it’s not even noon when I finally drag myself to the kitchen floor to snack before the delicious cake I’m sure mom has ordered for the evening. I pick up some fruit before heading to the common room.The elevator door opens and I’m recounting my to-do list in my head so focused that I don’t notice that for one, HQ’s common room is packed for this time of the day. The people in the room are engrossed in some kind of big conversation around the main table they don’t hear my entering to the room, but they do freeze when I try to get their attention.</p><p>“Erm, hello? Not to be rude or anything, but I booked this room since Monday, and I really need to start working so...”</p><p>The crowd turns around, and it’s definitely a crowd you don’t see together on an everyday basis. Taking most of the left side of the table is uncle Bruce, joined by uncle Scott and his daughter Cassie, leader of the New Avengers. Happy, Rhodey, and Clint Barton are talking amongst themselves, while Peter Parker and Harley Keener discuss a few papers with my mother, who should be at SI working. She’s the only who crosses eyes with me, while the rest of the room is silent and look at each other uncertainty.</p><p>“I thought we were meeting only for dessert today,” I started off casually, making myself comfortable in one of the lounge chairs around, “I mean, it’s my birthday and stuff but you know how I really don’t care about it.”</p><p>Mom crosses a look with her surrogate sons, and leaves her spot around the table to come towards me. There’s only been a few moments in life where I’ve seen the mighty Pepper Stark come off nervously, and now it is one of them. The rest of the gang is silent, and so much quietness is getting on my nerves.</p><p>“Okay, what’s going on? ‘Cause if you’re just consuming air, I’d like for everyone to leave so I can get to work… <em>please</em>.”</p><p>“You know your dad used to dismiss us the same way, except you’re more polite than he ever was,” Rhodey's words are a little bit louder than a whisper, but I catch my breath at them; it’s been forever since anyone has talked about my father directly to my face.</p><p>“Sweetheart, we’re all here together to give you your birthday present,” Mom states, and I laugh, both relieved and annoyed.</p><p>“Mom, I get wanting to brag about my new car in front of Parker and Harley, but the rest? That’s so Stark-ish, even for you.”</p><p>My mother’s eyes suddenly start glistening, and I instantly regret my words. Peter joins her in the middle of the room and offers his presence for comfort.</p><p>“Morgan, what is what you’ve wished for ever since you were five?” he asks, and I know the answer, I want to scream it out loud, but I’ve never allowed myself to express that feeling, not since I made my mother cried and learned about the fatality of death.</p><p>“Wishes are for children and fools, butterfly,” I try to sound snarky and cool, but my voice falters mid-phrase, “And some wishes can’t come true.”</p><p>“Well, maybe they can sweetie,” Mom regains her voice at the precise moment my stomach begins to turn, “I’ve never forgotten the time you asked for your father and I couldn’t do anything to please you after that, but we,” she motions and signals the rest of the Avengers and company, “have talked about it thoroughly and we’ve decided that you deserve to get the chance, more than any of us.”</p><p>“The chance to what?” My voice comes out cautious and shaky.</p><p>“The chance to see him again, and to get your goodbye,” my mother is tearing up at this point of the conversation, and I suddenly do the last thing in everyone’s mind - I refuse.</p><p>“No, thank you,” my mouth moves robotically, my voice lacks of emotion, and then everybody in the room is turning towards me with a variety of expressions. My mother stands speechless, and Peter looks angry while Harley just shakes his head with a smirk; he’d have known my reaction and argue about not even mentioning it to me. Out of the two Stark proteges, he’s the one I tolerate - like - the most, so he’s basically my personal verbal punching bag. Rhodey walks towards me while cocking his head in confusion.</p><p>“Morgan did you just listen to your mother? You’re being given a once in a lifetime opportunity to revisit someone who - last time I checked - has been gone for thirteen years,” his bluntness is always refreshing, as no one else dares to say something to further increase the tension.</p><p>“Exactly, Rhodey, <em>he’s gone</em>, and he’ll still be gone even if I take your present, or whatever you want to call it,” my eyes start to water in a sudden burst of anger, and I can’t hold my tears but I don’t let my face lose strength, “I mean, why would all of you even think that I’d want to see him again after he deliberately chose to fight and leave me the first time around, huh?”</p><p>Peter speaks up heatedly.</p><p>“He didn’t chose to leave you. He just, you know, <em>saved the entire universe and brought most of us back to life</em>; gee Morgan, just listen to yourself.”</p><p>I turn around and walk until I am face to face with Parker, oh stupid Peter Parker with his incredible knowledge, and self-righteousness, and great hair, and great smile… and his terribly annoying way of butting into other people’s lives.</p><p>“Excuse me, this is between my family and I, so why don’t you go away and make something useful of yourself instead of trashing into stuff that doesn’t concern you whatsoever?” Parker pales, finally, and takes a step back as if I had slapped him in the face. Words pour out of my mouth faster than I can think them through, and suddenly it is word vomit, and I can’t stop.</p><p>“You don’t get to have an opinion, because everything my father did, he did for you. You, and your stupid picture above the sink, and the stupid burden that was your memory, which he carried around for five <em>goddamned</em> years. Your presence in his head motivated him to play hero one more time like before, and I mean I’m glad everybody’s back, and people are happy and the world is normal, but that time around he had a daughter of his own who adored and idolized him and depended on him and wasn’t capable of understanding why there were suddenly so many new aunts and uncles in her life, but her father never came home like he promised. You don’t get to have an opinion, because you weren’t his real family, and you still got to say goodbye, and he still died, all because of YOU!”</p><p>“MORGAN HOPE STARK!” my mother’s booming voice echoes all around the common room, and I snap out of the frenzy that was my rant to see her normally flushed face turned tomato red in anger, and notice that the rest of the room is awkwardly standing there, taking the weight of my words inside of them. Parker’s face has some tears down his cheeks, and I should feel guilty, but I don’t. I feel the weight on my shoulders lightening just a little.</p><p>“Apologize to Peter, now.”</p><p>“I won’t apologize for telling the truth, Mother,” I tell her in the calmest voice possible, “And I will also refuse to face the man who abandoned me as a child.”</p><p>I’ve read all about Tony Stark’s heroics online. I’ve been told about his great spirit, his amazing mind, his never ending kindness, but I’ve also found out about his ego, his selfishness, and his underlying need to be prove to the world he wasn’t a villain, but a hero. He did. He died a hero. But for me, his ego proved to be better than his love for me.</p><p>Cassie Lang steps away from her father’s side and walks up to me to put her hands over my shoulder in a reassuring manner.</p><p>“Listen Morgan, I get you. And when I say I get you, I really do because I lost my dad too. Yes, I got him back in the end thanks to yours’ sacrifice, but those years I spent without him were terribly lonely, and confusing, and full of the teenage angst you’re projecting right now. I too understand the feeling of abandonment, and anger, and confusion over why the world was more important than him being with you at the time, but the only constant thought in my head during those years was how’d I’d have died to see him again and tell him everything I was feeling. Don’t you wish to face him one more time, and to finally get your closure, not for everybody else, but for you to be able to move on and be happy in life?”</p><p>Her big blue eyes sink down on mine, and even though the age difference between us, Cassie has been a constant companion through lonely nights, and angsty years, and the times when I needed a mentor or a friend, or a mother, or a sister, or just a person to be there. My face turns to face the remaining entourage, and I dare not speak to Peter, or my mother, but instead I turn to the brains and leaders of the operation - Scott and Bruce.</p><p>“Fine. Tell me the plan, and then maybe, I’ll consider it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Parker and Harley disappeared the moment the words “Quantum suit fittings” were heard in conversation, probably to spar and let Parker’s little feelings out. Clint left along with Happy and my mother, and I stayed with Rhodey, uncle Bruce, Scott, and Cassie to learn the logistics of time-travel. Hank Pym, in a lucid moment within his old age delusion, gifted Scott with the exact details of the Pym formula to produce for future Avenger business, and so they’d separated a particle batch for this moment. I am to wear a ridiculous time travel suit that resembles an outdated space suit, choose a moment in the space-time continuum to jump to, stay there the time needed, and come back in a minute - in real time of course. We take the party to the garage hall where the miniature version of the time machine is stored, and while Bruce and Scott get on starting it on, Rhodey slips to my side, and moves to stop me from chewing my already ruined nails, a nasty habit I picked out many years ago. I pretend to examine the suit Scott gave me in order to avoid talking, but Rhodey isn’t the one to stand aside in silence.</p><p>“You <em>are</em> conscious that you’re reasoning is terribly effed-up, right?” my father’s best friend asks me, grabbing the nearest thing available to sit on. His protesis is intact and updated yearly by me, but he still gets tired when being on his feet for a long time.</p><p>“You are conscious that I’m an adult now and there’s no effort on keeping a PG language, right?” I fire back with a dry laugh. I choose to sit on the floor and hug my knees, as if my body could shield me from the harsh truth about to be heard.</p><p>“And risk FRIDAY or any of the robots hearing me, reporting back to Pepper, and suffer from hours of verbal abuse for my lack of filter? I ain’t your dad to change her mood in a millisecond,” Rhodey smiles at me and I finally relax, laying down on the cold, marble floor and letting out the big breath I was holding back.</p><p>“Before you scold me Rhodes, I must tell you your new update is coming up, so if you don’t want your legs to be hot pink, you better watch your mouth.”</p><p>“Give me all the colors you want kiddo, but you know you gotta apologize for your behaviour up there, specially to your mother and Peter.”</p><p>I roll my head to the side facing him, and roll my eyes.</p><p>“Mom’s apology is already being thought of as we speak,” we both listen to some metal clank but ignore it, “But Parker? Never in a million years. I recognize I should’ve left my shouting for a more private place, but nothing I said was a lie… you do get that, don’t you? You get my point?”</p><p>Rhodey sighs and shifts uncomfortably in his seat.</p><p>“Morgan, you gotta understand, there’s absolutely no one to blame for your father’s death but Thanos, and that shit-ass grape face got his karma a long time ago,” he looks directly into my eyes; he's one of the few people who can make me feel six again, “But blaming it on Peter? Your dad adored the kid, and yes, the desire to bring him back was a wake-up call for Tony, but can’t you see that the bottomline of his involvement was to restore the world to what it was?”</p><p>I was about to argue, but he held his hand in order to continue talking.</p><p>“You were born after the Snap, and raised in a world before the Blip, but you gotta realize that those years of your life were privileged and, frankly just unreal. Your parents had the resources to shield you from the consequences, but what about the rest of the population? While you were playing in the cabin’s garden, or eating ice pops after hours, thousands of children your age were left homeless, parentless, or parents were left childless; families overall were destroyed. Happy was gone. Scott was thought to be gone. Nathaniel,” my cheeks redden at the sound of the youngest Barton, whose friendship and silly attempts to ask me out always bring a smile to my face, “was gone. The world was half-erased, and when we finally got the chance to get it all back, do you honestly think he’d put his own welfare over the one of millions?”</p><p>“He always put his happiness under everybody else’s Rhodey,” I whisper angrily, “He finally had the chance to be happy but he had to be a hero first; why the hell did he have me then?”</p><p>“Because he never thought he would actually die until the moment of the battle! Jesus kid, you’re talking about being an adult and you can’t stop sounding like a child. The possibility of undoing Thanos’ snap didn’t even come to mind ‘till Scott showed up on our doorstep…”</p><p>“So, <em>it is Scott’s fault</em>,” The fake disdain in my voice manages to bring a soften Rhodey’s face.</p><p>“Nobody’s fault, M, keep that in mind,” I stay on the ground, looking aimlessly at the ceiling, and Rhodey joins my side, I guess to level up with me, “What I want you to know, is that Tony did refuse to help us the first time we asked him.”</p><p>My heart skips a bit, and my eyes widen at these unknown details.</p><p>“No. way.” I phrase carefully, turning my face to look at my godfather.</p><p>“Yes way kiddo, back then when Romanoff and Rogers went to convince him, he’d say no as quickly as you did today,” I have vague memory of the pretty redhead whose death was as pivotal as my father’s, and the soldier who travelled through time and never came back, “And it took him a lot of self-reflection and Pepper’s advice to realize it was needed to be done. When he did came around, his first request was to bring everyone back, but to not erase the last five years, and you know why was that? Because <em>you happened</em> in those five years. His Morgan, “his greatest creation” , was to be protected from any direct mission consequence or otherwise he wouldn’t invent time travel - which he had invented the night before -, and so we planned the whole thing around the fact that while those years were generally terrible, bright and good things had also come out of it.”</p><p>Dad’s only request for the Time Heist was made of public knowledge when the government made him a televised memorial. Steve Rogers had spoken about my father’s priorities, and the way his duty to the world and his need for a better world originated for his desire of a better future for me.</p><p>Of course, he never got to say it to me directly.</p><p>Rhodey seems to sense my inner dilemma, and so he lays in silence for a few minutes while my turmoil continues. I move up my upper body to look at the technical crew in the middle of the room. Bruce’s intimidating green frame is glued to the command system; his glasses move down from his nose but he doesn’t seem to notice, engrossed in the codification needed for the machine to work. Scott and Cassie, on the other hand, are standing in the middle of the machine, checking for any mechanical error needed to be fixed. Their father-daughter relationship has been the subject of the deepest of my envies. But as a soft - sad - smile appears on my face at the sound of both’s laughs, my mind does realize that, just as Cassie, thousands of others got to rejoice and reunite with their own loved ones. I’m not suddenly forgetting all my abandonment issues - which I should take into therapy - but the smile on my friend’s face seems to be worth a little bit of pain in my heart everyday.</p><p>“I can’t remember the last thing he said to me,” I tell Rhodey, and he seems to reflect on it for a few seconds, I think, wondering about the same thing in his case, “Do you remember if he said anything to you?”</p><p>“Memories from the battle are blurry because concussions, y’know,” he taps his bald head a few times, “But another thing comes to mind when I think of your dad.”</p><p>“Well, do tell, please.”</p><p>Rhodey brings his hands balled up to his chin, and his eyes become a little bit glassy, as if his mind were transported to another era.</p><p>“The morning of the Endgame Battle,” he started with a tingle of nostalgia, “Tony and I were the only ones up, or at least the only people out in the lab, going through the plan over and over again. He had that exact shirt on,” he points towards my clothes, “And had had already 3 or 4 coffee cups, and well, acting as if everything was normal, ‘till he turned around and just blurted out <em>She’s meeting Happy and Peter,</em> and at first I was like it is too early for his crazy rambles, and I was about to respond him but your father kept talking and talking. <em>She’s getting a kindergarten full of classmates, and a huge high school graduation, and we’re gonna get to take her to full stadiums for whatever concerts she wants to go, and Quill kind of owes me so we’ll take her to Space</em>, etc. He kept listing several random things to do when he finally stopped, smiled like the Cheshire Cat, and say<em> Rhodey, if this works, Morgan’s life will be fucking amazing.</em> At the time I didn’t know about his goodbye video, or his contingency plans for his death, and we both hadn’t let ourselves imagine our success, but there, Morgan, I saw a sliver of hope in Tony for the first time in years, a feeling of hope created by the most important thing in his life. You. So, you can blame it all on everyone and keep being angry about his death, but everybody’s going to die eventually, and still, his thoughts that very last day of his life, were focused on the future of his daughter, and the desire that you could have the chance to live your life at the fullest, in a full, complete world.”</p><p>My eyes increasingly water with every word Rhodey speaks, and by the time he finishes, I am fully tear-stained and blotchy and letting out half-sobs, half-laughs trying to imagine the scene, and fully picturing his smile. I can’t speak, but my uncle manages to say what I’ve never allowed myself to thin before.</p><p>“Yes, your dad loved being a hero, and yes, he loved Happy, and Peter, and everyone else in his life who died. He loved the Avengers, and he loved this world, but he didn’t die because of everything I just said. He sacrificed himself for your future, so that his entire world could have a better world. And that is what it means to be a parent. To put your child’s well-being before yours, and to give everything you have for that undying love.”</p>
<hr/><p>I am fully suited up. I am about to travel through time. I am extremely <em>hot. </em></p><p>We’re gathered around the computers as Bruce finishes up some last minute details. My back is moist with sweat and and when he finishes, Scott jumps around and claps his hands together.</p><p>“Okay everybody, we are ready to go,” he announces as if he were a newsman, turning to look at my halloween-themed self, “So Morgan, the process is like, time travel for dummies. Whenever never we say go, you’re gonna press the button on your time wristlet - by the way, the button that takes the suit off is right behind your left ear - and when you arrive to the past, you do what you gotta do, and then return as if you were never gone. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right peanut?”</p><p>Cassie tries to fake an eye roll, but her eyes shine in adoration towards her father.</p><p>“Dad, you sound like a five year old every time you say that,” she jabs at him while pulling him close into a hug, “But there’s another issue that we haven’t discussed yet, which is the moment Morgan is going to jump to?”</p><p>“That is a great observation, little miss Stinger,” Bruce mutters, speaking for the first time in a while, “She needs to jump into a moment in which we can be assured the Tony from that era won’t be swayed to back out of the fight at the sight of his grown-up daughter, or otherwise we’re going to have a Back to the Future 2 nightmare scenario.”</p><p>“We established nearly a decade ago that Back to the Future isn’t a reliable source for time travel for God’s sake…” Scott starts, but I interrupt him, my mind suddenly lighting up.</p><p>“I have an idea. Rhodey just told me about a conversation he had with Dad the day of the battle. It was early in the morning, with no one else awake at the time, right?”</p><p>“I think it was between… damn, maybe five or four a.m., but I’m sure your dad didn’t get an ounce of sleep that night,” mused the War Machine, trying to remember more details about that encounter.</p><p>“Great! So assuming he pulled an all-nighter, we can establish the jump to after his meeting with Rhodey, maybe a little bit before six a.m.? Sun rises around seven-ish, and according to all of your stories, everybody was dead tired because of Natasha’s funeral and overall time jumping. This way no one will see me, and FRIDAY already had my blood records registered back then, so the intruder protocol won’t be activated either; it’s definitely the best option.”</p><p>The entourage looked uncertain, probably evaluating the risk of sending me to the exact day of the Endgame battle, as the media had dubbed the event days after the Blip.</p><p>“Wasn’t your dad known to be emotionally driven, though?” Cassie asks tentatively, “I do get your logic M - everyone’s mindset must have been dead set on the mission, but I mean, you’re his offspring, and if your outbursts and erratic decisions are proof of the Stark mercurial temper, what makes you certain he won’t change his mind after your encounter?”</p><p>I stay silent for a second, and ponder about whether concealing with her or speaking as candidly as possible. I raise my eyebrow at her; second option it is.</p><p>“Because my dad’s ultimate goal in life was to make mine <em>fucking amazing</em>,” I give a slight side glance to Rhodey, whose eyes roll in a kind fashion, “And a little birdie told me that around those moments in time, his decisions were more than dead set, so I think it’d be actually mood boosting to see me alive and well for his pre-battle jitters.”</p><p>A second of deep silence was followed by Bruce’s hummings as he approached the comms.</p><p>“He’d surely be toying with the already upgraded coffee machine to augment the coffee production…”</p><p>“Or be guarding the stones trying to control his urges to experiment on them…” Scott chimed in.</p><p>“Or debating whether calling Pepper or not…” Rhodey added with a chuckle.</p><p>“Okay so he’d be wasting some leisure time, it’s good. It’s workable, and most importantly it is a safe time zone,” Cassie interjects, clearly getting impatient with the baby boomers, “So are we agreeing on sending Morgan to the Endgame day?”</p><p>My uncles nod silently in agreement, and suddenly they’re ushering me towards the machine’s platform. Everything moves as quickly and as slowly as my brain tries to process. My fingers are still, hovering over my time wristlet apprehensively, and Bruce and Scott are almost ready to call it a day, when I notice a passing gleam on Doctor Hulk’s eyes. He runs towards the platform with his fists clenched, and as he gestures for me to approach him, I can already tell he’s not the bearer of wishful luck.</p><p>“Missy, I just remembered I have a favor to ask of you,” he starts, and I can swear his green skin flushes a deeper color, “All of this. The compound, the people, all of us… the future in general depends on the Endgame battle preserved in time as imperfect and poignant as it was, with no changes or interferences of outside forces, so I know you’ll probably hate me for a long time for asking you this but…” Hulk unclenches his huge fist to reveal a slender, silver, pen-looking cylinder with a concealed dark button on the side. Shit. Is he really… “Your dad and I were once watching MIB, and he was inspired by their memory-erasing technology so we developed the exact same thing…”</p><p>“And you want me to erase our encounter from his memories to assure the timeline’s pristine preservation, right?” I am for my words to sound bitter and harsh, but my scientific mind doesn’t let me. The fact that Hulk had accounted for the device on his own and the consequences of its usage is brilliant, and if it didn’t break my heart a little bit, I’d even congratulate him. His eyes are full of regret as he places the device on my left pocket.</p><p>“I hate myself for asking you to do it. But we have to remember that with a great power like this, comes a great responsibility from behind,” Did he really have to mention that <em>motherfucking phrase RIGHT NOW?</em>, “Can I count on you to do it, Morgunna?”</p><p>I don’t hesitate on affirming my commitment to the future, but I distance myself from reality as soon as the yes leaves my mouth. The world suddenly speeds up again, and I can notice my mother, Peter, and Harley entering the garage with a rushed feeling, but I gladly put them out of my mind too.</p><p>How do you say goodbye to someone after a decade of suppressed feelings?</p><p>How can I really have closure knowing that closure will only exist in my memory?</p><p>How will I not beg him to survive it all without risking the world as we know it today?</p><p>“Ready, Stark?” Cassie shouts, as the machine suddenly bursts into life and light flashes around the room and swirling patterns. It is now or never. The opportunity of a lifetime.</p><p>I active my time wristlet. And the, I disappear.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hiya guys, so here's the second installment. I am kind of a perfectionist, so it was hard to write the middle part of this fic without wanting to erase it over and over again. I hope you like it, and leave a comment below on your thoughts and theories about what's happening next!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi! so this is a fic i've been working since i first saw endgame, and then i went through a similar experience Morgan did (my dad's one year anniversary is tomorrow) so i guess inspiration struck in just the right moment. this is going to have two or three more chapters, but i hope you like it and tell me about what you think!</p><p>title comes from the song the last goodbye bye billy boyd.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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